This column has often dealt with the difficulties and perils of
road travel in Korea, including supply and casualty evacuation. (In many
cases the term "Road" is loosely used.) The discomforts of sea
travel aboard U.S. military transports and Landing Ships (Tanks) have
also been featured.

So far I have neglected one vital component of the transportation
system -- the Korean railroads. These sometimes tenuous links between
Pusan and other ports, and the forward areas, played a vital role in the
Korean War.

The heavy "coming and going" fighting during the first
year of the war took a toll on an already inadequate railroad system on
both sides of the 38th Parallel.

At the start of the war virtually all of the locomotives in Korea
were steam-powered, most of them of Russian design and reminiscent of
the turn of the century. Many of these were destroyed by mines,
artillery, sabotage, air strikes and in the case of North Korea, by
naval gunfire. The Royal Canadian Navy in particular established a
reputation in the "Trainbusters Club." HMCS Crusader
established a record in destroying enemy supply trains on the coastal
railways, earning the code word "Casey Jones" in recognition.

The South Korean railways, too, lost many locomotives -- indeed
bullet and shell-riddled trains lying off the embankments were so common
that after a time they attracted little attention from the troops moving
up into the line.

It was there that most of us made our first aquaintance with the
South Korean railroads. After disembarking at Pusan, we were trucked to
the train station. This shattered cavernous structure was a scene of
disorder. While U.S. Red Cross ladies distributed coffee and doughnuts,
harried Rail Transport Officers attempted to assemble the heavily-laden
soldier on the right platforms and ultimately on the right trains. The
confusion was compounded by many "unattached" multilingual
individual servicemen and hosts of Korean refugees, who had arrived from
the north and now had nowhere to go and no means of support, save
whatever food or other items they could beg from the troops.

Eventually the train arrived -- usually in the early days it was
pulled by one or two ancient-looking locomotives, leaking steam from
several places. The engine crew were Koreans -- despite calumnious rumours that sometimes they would refuse to drive north and had to be
replaced by UN drivers, I have yet to hear of this actually happening.
Meanwhile the troops would be assigned to "passenger cars."

Mike White, a former Gunner, describes the scene:

The train, when it arrived, reminded me of one of the old
wood-burners of the Wild West which Jesse James used to hold up. We were
seated in pairs, facing each other, on carriage seats that were wooden
slats, with our bags (of which we had two) piled high down the gangways
and everyone clambering over them when leaving the compartment.

The "dining car" consisted of an M-37 field cooker, on
which two large vats of water were boiling. One contained heated
C-ration cans, the other we used to make our instant coffee. Meals were
handed out haphazardly, and a great deal of swapping took place (few of
us liked the ground meat and spaghetti).

Most of us spent the trip reading, playing cards or trying with
little or no success to sleep. Until the novelty wore off, we got a kick
out of receiving a "present arms" from the R.O.K. sentries who
were posted on every roll bridge -- a necessary precaution as guerrillas
were still active. Many of our younger troops who had not seen the
effects of war before were sobered by the sight of wrecked locomotives
and rolling stock in sidings or off the track, as well as the stations
that we passed through. The Pusan-Seoul trip could take between 15 and
24 hours -- 50 years later I did the reverse trip in under four hours,
in much more comfortable conditions.

Needless to say, moving people was only one function of the
railroads. Ammunition, equipment, supplies and rations all had to be
shipped to the railheads for onward distribution to units by truck. The
Commonwealth railhead at Tokchong was a small city in itself: Not only
were the supply depots there, but the great morale-booster, the NAAFI,
had a warehouse where thousands of cases of "Asahi" beer were
stored along with other potables and the many canteen goodies sold by
that institution. Local Koreans, conscripted for labour, mingled with
hopeful soldiers trying (usually unsuccessfully), to obtain bootleg
hooch from the NAAFI staff.

It was obvious that the limited resources of South Korea's
railway system could not meet the needs of the forward troops, and the
U.S. Army Transportation Corps was quick to provide reinforcement and
control. A Military Rail Service platoon moved in early in the war --
this was later augmented to two Rail Service Battalions, the 712th and
714th.

These hardworking troops carried out a multitude of duties, from
driving the locomotives to freight handling. (One officer of the U.S.
Korean War Veterans Association served as both a locomotive engineer and
troop passenger train commander.) In addition, members of the rail
battalions, as well as military police detachments and occasionally
"volunteered" line troops, had the important and often
dangerous task of guarding critical and valuable cargo. On several
occasions, the exacting work of the railroaders in rapidly
forward-loading essential ammunition supplies proved crucial during the
heavy defensive battles of the last two years of the war.

Besides the expertise and personnel, the U.S. not only brought in a
Railway Shop Battalion, which restored and repaired damaged locomotives
and rolling stock, but shipped over a number of 1600-HP General Motors
diesel locomotives to augment the Korean equipment. Some problems were
encountered as there were a number of different railroad guages on the
Korean peninsula. Understandably too, the rail beds were in poor
condition following the battles which had raged in their areas it was
necessary for these to be fixed.

However, by the time of the cease fire, the railways were running
fairly well. The same cannot be said of North Korea, whose trains were
under constant attack by naval vessels and allied aircraft. Their
antiquated locomotives were forced to rely on poor-quality coal.

In addition to the diesel and steam locomotives used in the south,
a number of "adaptations" were introduced. I remember seeing a
passenger bus fitted with rail wheels and used as a sort of ambulance --
it would no doubt have been far more comfortable than the usual Dodge
3/4 ton ambulance backloading casualties via the bumpy and pot-holed
Main Supply Route. Trucks and jeeps were similarly adapted -- the latter
proved invaluable for anti-guerrilla security patrols.

South Korea recognized the value of their railroad workers. When
the Korean War Service Medal was instituted by President Rhee in 1951,
in addition to military and para-military police personnel one of the
qualifying categories was "railroad employee or sailor who
transported army." Whatever we may think of our "cattle
car" trips to the front line, I'm sure that most of us would
agree that they deserved it.

COPYRIGHT 2001 S.R. Taylor Publishing
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